Three more bodies recovered

Mumbai, July 12 (UNI) Three more bodies were recovered today during the serch operation undertaken jointly by the personnel of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Coast Guard and other agencies to look for the missing crew of the ill-fated Samudrika 10 ONGC supply vessel, which sank off the Mumbai coast on Monday.

The three have been identified as Vivek Kumar (seaman), Sukanta Banerjee (cook) and Shivmohan Tripathi (oiler).

Yesterday, the body of one crew member was recovered, taking the toll to four. The deceased was identified as Rajveer Sing (bosun), an official source said.

Eight crew members onboard Samudrika-10 had gone missing after it sank near the Nhava supply base of the public sector undertaking.

However, nine other crew members were rescued during the search and rescue operation carried out jointly by the personnel from ONGC, Indian Navy, Flag Officer Defence Advisory Group (FODAG), and Coast Guard.

At the time when the incident occurred, the offshore supply vessel was on a standby mode due to bad weather, waiting for transfer of cargo to ONGC's drilling rig, Sagar Gaurav, operating in the Basin and Satellite field of the public sector undertaking.

The ill-fated vessel was operating in the sea at about 56 nautical miles from the supply base, an ONGC release said today.

Samudrika-10 was operated by M/s SICAL Logistics Ltd of Chennai under an operation and maintenance contract.

The supply vessel was constructed in 1986 and completed its last statutory dry-dock in February 2006, whereas its next statutory dry-dock was due in November next year.

Samudrika-10 had sailed on July 6 from ONGC'S Nhava Supply base in good weather conditions.

UNI